Breaking Barriers to Spiritual Care: A Call for Collaboration
11/04/25
Spiritual care is a vital part of holistic healthcare, yet many patients’ spiritual needs go unmet because of barriers like timing, privacy, lack of knowledge, and unclear access pathways. Health professionals may hear clients’ spiritual questions but may not know how to respond or connect clients with help.
Collaboration is key – by learning, listening, reflecting and referring, health professionals can help ensure care addresses body, mind, and spirit. Together, we can create a healthcare culture where every person is supported in their full humanity.
A clinical moment: When spiritual questions surface
‘Sarah’, an acute ward therapist, was working with a patient recovering from major surgery.
During a quiet moment, the patient asked softly:
“Why is this happening to me – I mean, why do bad things happen to good people?”
Sarah froze. She wanted to respond with compassion, but she wasn’t sure what to say – or
who to call. Was there even a chaplain on this ward? She had never met one. The patient’s
question lingered in the air, unanswered.
Body, mind, and spirit in care
This scenario was developed from research and personal experience to illustrate a situation that is all too common in healthcare. That’s because in many settings, care is still largely focused on physical needs – pain management, mobility, medication, and procedures. These are essential, of course. But when we stop there, we risk missing the deeper layers of human experience: the emotional, social, and spiritual dimensions that shape how people struggle, heal, and create meaning in their lives.
Acknowledging that people are body, mind, and spirit should never be considered an unusual add-on to healthcare. Instead, it should be the core of holistic healthcare. However, no single profession can do it all – no one is an expert at everything! That’s why it’s important to explore how health professionals can better understand and collaborate with spiritual care experts within healthcare settings.
Why spiritual care experts matter
Spiritual care experts, such as chaplains and local cultural or faith leaders, can come alongside patients and clients to offer specialised spiritual advice and support (Best et al., 2024).
Spiritual care services ask questions like:
– What gives this person strength?
– What losses have they endured?
– What beliefs or values guide their decisions?
– What fears or hopes are present in this moment?
These questions don’t always have easy answers. But they may open the door to conversations that matter – especially in times of crisis, grief, or transition.
Research shows that patients value spiritual care when it is offered with sensitivity and respect. In hospital settings, patients report that spiritual care helps them feel understood and supported beyond their physical symptoms (Advocat et al., 2023). Similarly, older adults living in the community express a need for spiritual support that affirms meaning and connection in daily life (Ilmi et al., 2024).
Common barriers to accessing spiritual care
From both personal experience and research, four common barriers have stood out:
1. Timing
Spiritual care offered too early or too late can be missed entirely. At moments of shock – such as receiving a diagnosis – families may be emotionally shut down, unable to take in even the most compassionate offers of support. Timing matters and offers of help may need to be extended a few times. Care must be attuned not just to what is offered, but when and how (McColl, 2022).
2. Privacy
In busy wards or shared spaces, deep and sensitive conversations are hard to have. Clients may not feel safe to speak openly when loved ones are present or when others can overhear. Without privacy, asking for help can feel out of reach, as families and patients may try to protect each other during a difficult healthcare journey (Rothausen et al., 2023).
3. Knowledge
Many people – including healthcare professionals – don’t fully understand what spiritual care is. In our case, we didn’t realise the depth of compassion and specialist knowledge that healthcare chaplaincy could have offered. Without awareness and advocacy, families may not know what to ask for, and systems won’t know what help to provide (Klitzman et al., 2023).
4. Access
Spiritual care access pathways can be difficult to navigate. In hospitals, chaplains often cover multiple wards with limited funding, making them seem unavailable. In community settings, it’s not always clear who to turn to or how to refer. These gaps may leave families unsupported at critical moments (Spiritual Health Association, 2022). These barriers are not just theoretical. They represent real experiences of people not getting the spiritual help they need – but these barriers can be shifted.
The role of collaboration
Health professionals are uniquely positioned to support spiritual care. Their close relationships with clients make them natural allies in this work. They are often the first to hear the stories clients and patients share as they try to make sense of their healthcare journey – stories that can signal when specialised spiritual care might be helpful.
But collaboration is key.
To work more effectively with spiritual care experts, health professionals can recognise when spiritual needs are emerging for clients and create safe spaces for conversation. During these conversations, health professionals need to be sensitive to the limits of their professional scope of practice. Finally, health professionals can educate families about what spiritual care can offer and refer to spiritual care experts when appropriate. Spiritual care experts bring depth, training, and presence that complement clinical care. This is not about adding another service. It’s about changing the culture of care – so that
every person has access to holistic healthcare.
What can we do?
Whether you’re a clinician, educator, or administrator, there are steps you can take:
– Learn: Understand what spiritual care is and how it can support patients, clients and families.
– Listen: Create time and space for conversations that go beyond symptoms or checklists.
– Reflect: Be sensitive to the limits of your professional scope of practice.
– Refer: Know who your spiritual care providers are and how to connect with them.
A vision for holistic healthcare
Holistic care sees the whole person – body, mind, and spirit. It doesn’t rush past suffering or silence grief. It makes room for client stories of meaning and connection, struggle and hope. At The Spirit of Care, we offer talks, training, and resources to help health professionals to integrate spirituality into practice. Whether you’re just beginning on this journey or already working in this space, we invite you to explore, learn, and collaborate.
Get in touch with us, we’d love to hear your thoughts.
